Editing Red Army Faction (section)

== RAF since the 1990s ==
The [[dissolution of the Soviet Union]] in late December 1991 was a serious blow to Leninist groups, but well into the 1990s attacks were still being committed under the name RAF. Among these were the killing of Ernst Zimmermann, CEO of [[MTU Aero Engines]], a German engineering company; another bombing at the [[United States Air Force|US Air Force's]] [[Rhein-Main Air Base]] (near [[Frankfurt]]), which targeted the base commander and killed two bystanders; a [[car bomb]] attack that killed [[Siemens]] executive [[Karl Heinz Beckurts|Karl-Heinz Beckurts]] and his driver; and the shooting of [[Gerold von Braunmühl]], a leading official at [[German Foreign Office|Germany's foreign ministry]].
On 30 November 1989, [[Deutsche Bank]] chairman [[Alfred Herrhausen]] was killed with a highly complex bomb when his car triggered a photo sensor in [[Bad Homburg]]. On 1 April 1991, [[Detlev Karsten Rohwedder]], leader of the government {{lang|de|[[Treuhand]]}} organization responsible for the privatization of the [[East Germany|East German]] state economy, was shot and killed. The assassins of Zimmermann, von Braunmühl, Herrhausen, and Rohwedder were never reliably identified.

After [[German reunification]] in 1990, it was confirmed that the [[Stasi]], the security and intelligence organization of [[East Germany]], had been monitoring the RAF, and in the 1980s had provided ten ex-members shelter and new identities.<ref>Jan-Hendrik Schulz: [https://www.zeitgeschichte-online.de/thema/die-beziehungen-zwischen-der-roten-armee-fraktion-raf-und-dem-ministerium-fuer ''Die Beziehungen zwischen der Roten Armee Fraktion (RAF) und dem Ministerium für Staatssicherheit (MfS) in der DDR.''] In: ''Zeitgeschichte Online'', May 2007</ref> This was already generally suspected at the time.<ref name="Schmeidel">{{cite journal |last=Schmeidel |first=John |title=My Enemy's Enemy: Twenty Years of Co-operation between West Germany's Red Army Faction and the GDR Ministry for State Security |journal=Intelligence and National Security |volume=8 |issue=4 |date=October 1993 |pages=59–72| doi=10.1080/02684529308432225 }}</ref><ref name="Rohl">{{cite book | title=So macht Kommunismus Spaß |language=de |last=Röhl |first=Bettina | year=2007 |publisher=Europäische Verlagsanstalt | isbn=978-3-434-50600-3}}</ref>{{page needed|date=September 2021}} In 1978 part of the group was exfiltrated through [[Tito's Yugoslavia|Yugoslavia]] to [[Polska Rzeczpospolita Ludowa|communist Poland]] to avoid a manhunt in Germany. [[Brigitte Mohnhaupt]], Peter Boock, Rolf Wagner, and Sieglinde Hoffmann spent most of the year in facilities of the [[Ministry of Public Security (Poland)|Polish Ministry of Public Security]] in [[Masuria]], northeastern Poland, where they were also going through series of training programs along with others from Arab countries.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.dziennikpolski24.pl/artykul/2690952,terrorysci-pod-ochrona-wywiadu-sb,id,t.html|title=Terroryści pod ochroną wywiadu SB Czytaj więcej|work=[[Dziennik Polski]]|date=15 December 2009|last=Knap |first=Włodzimierz|access-date=12 March 2016|archive-date=2 October 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151002020557/http://www.dziennikpolski24.pl/artykul/2690952,terrorysci-pod-ochrona-wywiadu-sb,id,t.html|url-status=live}}</ref>

In 1992, the German government assessed that the RAF's main field of engagement now was missions to release imprisoned RAF members. To weaken the organization further the government declared that some RAF inmates would be released if the RAF refrained from violent attacks in the future. Subsequently, the RAF announced their intention to "de-escalate" and refrain from significant activity.

The last action taken by the RAF took place in 1993 with a bombing of a newly-built prison in [[Weiterstadt]] by overcoming the officers on duty and planting explosives. Although no one was seriously injured, this operation caused property damage amounting to 123 million Deutsche Marks (over 50 million euros).

The last big action against the RAF took place on 27 June 1993. An agent of the [[Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution]] (the West German domestic intelligence agency) named [[Klaus Steinmetz]] had infiltrated the RAF. As a result, [[Birgit Hogefeld]] and [[Wolfgang Grams]] were arrested in [[Bad Kleinen]]. Grams and [[GSG 9]] officer [[Michael Newrzella]] died during the mission. Due to a number of operational mistakes involving the various police services, German Minister of the Interior [[Rudolf Seiters]] took responsibility and resigned from his post.

Historians and the German authorities have much more clarity about the names and actions of the first and second generations of the RAF than is the case with the third generation. The lawyer and author Butz Peters describes the third generation of the RAF as a "black box": The members have learned from the mistakes of the first and second generations. "You were up to date with the latest forensic technology" In addition, you were much more reserved in your actions. "The first generations had many supporters and many members who at some point became soft. The third generation learned from this that they lived very conspiratorially and insularly."<ref>{{Cite web |last=deutschlandfunk.de |title=RAF: Die geheimnisvolle dritte Generation |url=https://www.deutschlandfunk.de/raf-mysterium-dritte-generation-100.html |access-date=2024-03-05 |website=Deutschlandfunk |date=5 March 2024 |language=de}}</ref>

=== Dissolution ===
On 20 April 1998, an eight-page typewritten letter in German was faxed to the [[Reuters]] news agency, signed "RAF" with the machine-gun red star, declaring the group dissolved:

{{blockquote|Almost 28 years ago, on 14 May 1970, during a liberation operation, the RAF formed. Today we end this project. The urban guerrilla in the form of the RAF is history now.<ref name="rafinfo.de"/> ({{langx|de|Vor fast 28 Jahren, am 14. Mai 1970, entstand in einer Befreiungsaktion die RAF. Heute beenden wir dieses Projekt. Die Stadtguerilla in Form der RAF ist nun Geschichte.}})}}

In response to this statement, former [[Federal Criminal Police Office (Germany)|BKA]] President [[Horst Herold]] said, "With this statement the Red Army Faction has erected its own tombstone."<ref>{{cite book |first=John O.|last=Koehler |year=1999 |title=The Stasi: The Untold Story of the East German Secret Police |page=449 |publisher=Westview Press}}</ref>

=== Legacy ===
[[Horst Mahler]], a founding RAF member, is now a vocal [[Neo-Nazi]] and [[Holocaust denial|Holocaust denier]].<ref>Mahler, Horst (25 March 2001). [https://web.archive.org/web/20010602091156/http://www.regmeister.net:80/h_mahler.htm "Discovery of God instead of Jewish Hatred"]. Lecture prepared for the Conference of Revisionist Historians on 3 April 2001. The meeting was prohibited by the Lebanese government on 23 March 2001.</ref><ref>{{cite magazine |url=http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/0,1518,550430,00.html |author=<!-- Staff writer(s); no by-line --> |title=German Sentenced to 10 Months for Hitler Greeting |date=29 April 2008 |magazine=[[Der Spiegel]] |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090210103754/http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/0,1518,550430,00.html |archive-date=10 February 2009 |agency=[[Deutsche Presse-Agentur]]}}</ref> In 2005, he was sentenced to six years in prison for [[Volksverhetzung|incitement to racial hatred]] against Jews.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.ejpress.org/article/12601 |work=European Jewish Press |title=Neo-Nazi Horst Mahler transferred to prison in Bavaria |date=29 December 2006 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081201085655/http://www.ejpress.org/article/12601 |archive-date=1 December 2008 |url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.jewishpress.com/pageroute.do/16321/ |title=The Strange Case of Horst Mahler |first=William |last=Grim |date=9 June 2004
|work=The Jewish Press |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090309030637/http://www.jewishpress.com/pageroute.do/16321 |archive-date=9 March 2009 }}</ref> He is on record as saying {{lang|de|"Der Feind ist der Gleiche"}} ("The enemy is the same").<ref>''[[Frankfurter Rundschau]]'', 22 April 1999; ''[[Junge Welt]]'', February 1999</ref>{{full citation needed|date=June 2020}}

In 2007, amidst widespread media controversy, [[President of Germany|German president]] [[Horst Köhler]] considered pardoning RAF member [[Christian Klar]], who had filed a pardon application several years before. On 7 May 2007, pardon was denied; regular<ref group=lower-alpha>In Germany, lifelong imprisoned convicts can apply for parole after 15 years – a period in this case extended by the court due to the number of crimes – which is to be granted whenever the convict's freedom is no longer dangerous to the public.</ref> parole was later granted on 24 November 2008.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7745705.stm|title=Red Army Faction boss to be freed|access-date=11 February 2015 |publisher=[[BBC News]] |date=24 November 2008|archive-date=4 February 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150204193540/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7745705.stm|url-status=live}}</ref> RAF member [[Brigitte Mohnhaupt]] was granted release on five-year parole by a German court on 12 February 2007 and [[Eva Haule]] was released 17 August 2007.

In 2011, the last imprisoned RAF member, [[Birgit Hogefeld]], was released on parole.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.tagesspiegel.de/politik/reststrafe-zur-bewaehrung-fruehere-raf-terroristin-hogefeld-kommt-auf-freien-fuss/4275864.html|title=Frühere RAF-Terroristin Hogefeld kommt auf freien Fuß|work=[[Der Tagesspiegel]]|language=de|access-date=23 April 2019|date=10 June 2011|archive-date=23 April 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190423090607/https://www.tagesspiegel.de/politik/reststrafe-zur-bewaehrung-fruehere-raf-terroristin-hogefeld-kommt-auf-freien-fuss/4275864.html|url-status=live}}</ref>

Police in Europe investigating the whereabouts of Ernst-Volker Staub, Burkhard Garweg and Daniela Klette stated that a search had been made in Spain, France and Italy.<ref>{{Cite web | url=https://www.stuttgarter-zeitung.de/inhalt.ex-raf-terroristen-wo-sind-ernst-volker-staub-burkhard-garweg-und-daniela-klette.a0f0f850-0502-48f7-b766-a00f420e5d81.html | title=Ex-RAF-Terroristen: Trio wird im Ausland vermutet |language=de | access-date=30 July 2018 | archive-date=30 July 2018 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180730170620/https://www.stuttgarter-zeitung.de/inhalt.ex-raf-terroristen-wo-sind-ernst-volker-staub-burkhard-garweg-und-daniela-klette.a0f0f850-0502-48f7-b766-a00f420e5d81.html | url-status=live }}</ref> This followed reports that they could be hiding in the Netherlands in 2017 after being suspected of masterminding robberies in supermarkets and cash transit vehicles in [[Wolfsburg]], [[Bremen]] and [[Cremlingen]] between 2011 and 2016.<ref>{{Cite web|url = https://nltimes.nl/2017/06/28/new-indications-german-leftist-terrorist-group-members-hiding-netherlands|title = New indications of German leftist terrorist group members hiding in Netherlands|date = 28 June 2017|access-date = 30 July 2018}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.bka.de/DE/IhreSicherheit/Fahndungen/Personen/BekanntePersonen/RAF_Aktuell/Fahndungsplakat_RAF_aktuell.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210308065628/https://www.bka.de/DE/IhreSicherheit/Fahndungen/Personen/BekanntePersonen/RAF_Aktuell/Fahndungsplakat_RAF_aktuell.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=8 March 2021|title=current wanted poster|publisher=BKA|access-date=10 September 2019|date=29 July 2016}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-35351477|title=German Red Army Faction radicals 'bungled armed robbery'|date=19 January 2016 |publisher=[[BBC News]] |language=en-GB|access-date=22 June 2018|archive-date=4 May 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180504030130/http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-35351477|url-status=live}}</ref> On 26 February 2024, Daniela Klette was arrested in Berlin; according to coverage in ''[[The Guardian]]'', Klette's arrest followed an investigative TV report about the missing trio, which sparked 250 independent tips to local police about their whereabouts.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Connolly |first1=Kate |title=Red Army Faction militant arrested in Germany after decades on run |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/feb/27/red-army-faction-militant-arrested-decades-run-germany-daniela-klette |website=[[The Guardian]] |access-date=7 March 2024 |date=27 February 2024}}</ref>

According to scholarly research into Stasi documents, RAF members in East Germany were trained and assisted by personnel from the [[Stasi Arbeitsgruppe des Ministers S]].<ref name="Igel 2012 190ff"/>